Imaginary

Music: Composers, artists, and major works

Corelli, 12 Concerti Grossi, Op. 6: composer Angelico Corelli lavished a lifetime of care and attention on these works, to the point that we can justifiably say he cherished them. That attitude comes through in the music. (Here are performances conducted by Biondi, Pinnock and Warchal.)

Dvořák, Serenades:

• Serenade 1 in E Major, Op. 22, B52 (1875)
• Serenade No. 2 in D Minor, Op. 44, B77 (1878)

Sgambati, symphonies:

• Symphony 1 in D Major, Op. 16 (1881)
• Symphony 2 in E-flat Major (1885)

Giuliani, Duets for Flute and Guitar:

• Gran Duetto Concertante, Op. 52
• Grand Serenade, Op. 82
• Grand duo concertant, Op. 85
• Serenade, Op. 127

Reynaldo Hahn’s chamber music:

• Piano Quartet No. 3 in G Major
• Piano Quintet in F-sharp Minor
• À Chloris
• Vocalise-Étude
• Si Mes Vers Avaient des Ailes
• Nocturne in E-flat Major

Three Violin Sonatas by Niels Gade:

• Violin Sonata No. 1 in A Major, Op. 6 (1842)
• Violin Sonata No. 2 in D Minor, Op. 21a (1849)
• Violin Sonata No. 3 in B-flat Major, Op. 59 (1885)

Other works:

• Fauré, Piano Quintet No. 2 in C Minor, 115 (1921)
• Brahms, Piano Sonata No. 3 in F Minor, Op. 5 (1853)
• Draeseke, String Quintet in F Major, Op. 77 (1901)
• Wayne, The Rosenberger Variations, "The Romantic" (1998)
• Robert Fuchs, Trio in F-sharp minor for piano, violin and viola, Op. 115
• Ruiz, Sonata for Violin and Piano in F Major, R. 6
• Ruiz, Trio for Violin, Cello and Piano in A Major, Op. 9
• César Franck, Premier duo concertant pour piano et violin sur les motifs de “Gulistan”, Op. 14, FWV 6 (1844)
• Ralph Vaughan Williams, String Quartet No. 2 in A Minor (1944) (approx. 22 minutes), “arose from Vaughan Williams’s friendship with the viola player Jean Stewart, who as a student had played in the orchestra at the annual Leith Hill Festivals which he conducted, and had become one of his ‘honorary nieces’, as his favourite younger female friends were known. . . Completed in 1944 it bore the dedication ‘To Jean on her birthday’, and on her personal copy of the score Vaughan Williams wrote ‘price 1000 kisses’. ” The mood is tender, warm and solicitous.

Oded Tzur caresses music with his saxophone. His albums include:

• “Isabela” (2022)
• “Here Be Dragons” (2020)
• “Translator’s Note” (2017)
• “Like a Great River” (2015)

Other albums:

• “The Tony Bennett Bill Evans Album”
• Jeroen van Veen, “Piazzolla: Para el Ángel: piano music”

Music: songs and other short pieces

Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms: According to at least one account, Irish Thomas Moore’s wife refused to allow herself to be seen after she contracted smallpox. So Moore composed these words to a traditional Irish air, and sang the song to her from outside her bedroom door. Through his love and acceptance of her, perhaps she was reminded to love and accept herself.

Believe me, if all those endearing young charms, / Which I gaze on so fondly today, / Were to change by tomorrow and fleet in my arms, / Like fairy gifts fading away, / Thou wouldst still be adored, as this moment thou art, / Let thy loveliness fade as it will; / And around the dear ruin each wish of my heart / Would entwine itself verdantly still.

It is not while beauty and youth are thine own, / And thy cheeks unprofaned by a tear, / That the fervor and faith of a soul can be known, / To which time will but make thee more dear. / No, the heart that has truly loved never forgets, / But as truly loves on to the close: / As the sunflower turns on her god when he sets / The same look which she turned when he rose.